At 12:08 PM 11/3/95, Perry E. Metzger wrote:

Timothy C. May writes:

...

I don't plan to belabor this point. Radioactive decay sources are certainly fine, though not likely to be purchased by most people.

Video digitzation equipment connected to TV tuners turned to dead air, your suggestion, are equally unlikely to be purchased by most people. The geiger counters are very simple and cheap, too.

Perry

Well, it's true that video digitization equiptment _used_ to be unlikely to be purchased. Now, it is often standard equiptment. I recently purchased a Mac Performa for a Customer Support desk. We chose a cheaper model that came with a built-in video tuner. It came with a _remote control_ that would allow you to switch channels and adjust the volume just like a regular remote. It was very nicely integrated and ready to suck down signal from an antenna. While I haven't hacked that part of the Mac kernal, I would not be surprised if it was easy to turn the signal into a Quicktime video file ready for hashing. This was, incidentally, one of the cheaper Performas available at the time. Your mileage may vary because Apple is really flipping all over the place on features. But, now that the cold war is over, I don't expect them to be offering the Radiation Manager plug-in any time soon. -Peter